Royal Pleco without driftwood

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They dnt need a big pieces of drift wood just a tiny one will do as long there is wood in the tank. Royal need wood to survive and the wood help wear down their teeths.

I long believed this to be fact. But another member on here has basicly proven to me that the dw isn't directly needed for their diet. Basicly it is a myth that they need wood in their diet to survive. That being said I would still never do it. I have seen how fat and happy mine have been with tons of wood in their tanks and I would have it no other way. I also feed as little protein as possible to my panaques.
 
I long believed this to be fact. But another member on here has basicly proven to me that the dw isn't directly needed for their diet. Basicly it is a myth that they need wood in their diet to survive. That being said I would still never do it. I have seen how fat and happy mine have been with tons of wood in their tanks and I would have it no other way. I also feed as little protein as possible to my panaques.

When I get new royals i usually put them it the tank with wood and let them get back in shape and get their weight up befor I start try to feed the pellets and wafers.
 
you could probably hide some wood in your rock scape pretty easily
 
I have a royal pleco, I've had almost 2 months now...had wood n the tank and he never ate it...but I do have coconuts that I see him eating on, would that take place of the wood?


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I have a Royal in my 135 and between my PVC "logs" and my real driftwood, he is CONSTANTLY feeding off of the real driftwood, only briefly grazing the false stuff. I would say give your Royal wood or pick a non panaque pleco.


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Myself & a mod discussed this topic in even greater detail, in the following past thread.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?517781-Fish-which-need-driftwood


IMO plecos are drawn to wood due to thousands of years of being hard wired to do just that, not for its nutritional value as panaques do not have the correct enzymes to even digest wood, nor has wood been proven to be a dietary requirement for any species of pleco kept in captivity.

Nothing wrong with keeping driftwood in a panaques tank - but an absolute requirement? I don't think so.

The following was posted on a Canadian pleco forum...........

I have also conducted tests on Panaque, wood and NLS food. I have a couple of tanks with different sizes of Panaque inside them but without a sinlge piece of wood there. I keep feeding them only NLS food like all my other plecos. The 8" Panaque L27 that I have posted its pics recently has been living in a 120G tank with no wood inside for close to 3 yrs now and is fed only by NLS. You can tell its conditions by looking at the pics that I posted- a nice looking specimen. Many people may be surprised to hear that Panaque can live in great shape even without a single pc of wood in the tank. However, this is my own personal experience over the years.

Panaque living with wood- a good choice as they have hiding places and something to chew on GOOD set-up

Panaque living without wood- Perfectly ok as long as they have a good diet, with rocks as hiding places
 
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